Sleep?

A new mom expects to miss out on the most precious commodity called sleep. Its part of the deal- I suffer for 9 months to bring a child into this world. I suffer another 12 hours to birth this child. I suffer the first 6 weeks trying to heal, adjust, and get back to normal. For me all the 9 months, 12 hours and 6 weeks are sleepless. I am now embarking on almost a year after birth waking up with a baby. It isn't really her fault- but she right now is the main reason for it. But, I have sleep issues- did before babies, and will continue after babies aren't babies anymore most likely.

My 6 year old has troubles falling asleep. I feel for her, I really really do. I know how desperate and exasperated one feels laying in a bed willing yourself to sleep. I am sure it does not help to have someone coming into your room every so often telling you that you HAVE TO GO TO SLEEP! And like myself, my 6 year old is grumpy when she is tired in the mornings. It is so hard to wake up in the mornings. I can only remember a very few number of occasions in my life when I woke up ready to bound out of bed. I do initially feel bad for her in the morning and try to be cheerful to her grumpiness, try to be deaf to her whining and crying, and understanding to her problem. But on the mornings I had a rough night- I am not so much. I am blessed to have a husband that can usually stick around until we are ready for school so when I am ready to scream at this precious grumpy girl he can step in.

When I do not get enough sleep, I hurt. My head hurts. If I go for days without a good nights rest, I feel in a fog. The rest of my body starts hurting. My anxieties rise. My patience is thin. I am not nice to be around. I want to cry. I want someone to take care of me, but I want them to offer it before I ask for it.

I can't remember the last time I slept through the entire night. Pregnancy has me up constantly thanks to a weak bladder from birthing 9 pound babies. This wonderful precious baby who has been with us now for over 11 months still gets up twice or more a night. While I would love to let her cry it out and learn to sleep on her own, she has kidney reflux and has already had a number of UTI's. I never know if she is in pain or not, so I can't let her cry it out. I have been readying the no-cry-sleep-solution, but so far I think its teaching her worse habits than she had before.

She has been sick with a fever for the past three nights and I have not slept more than a few hours in a row for these past three nights. I think I am loosing my mind. But I did find this funny fact:

• A new baby typically results in 400-750 hours of lost sleep for parents in the first year.

There are some other funny and amazing sleep facts at:

http://www.abc.net.au/science/sleep/facts.htm

A few others that stood out:
Seventeen hours of sustained wakefulness leads to a decrease in performance equivalent to a blood alcohol-level of 0.05%.

Feeling tired can feel normal after a short time. Those deliberately deprived of sleep for research initially noticed greatly the effects on their alertness, mood and physical performance, but the awareness dropped off after the first few days.

Some studies suggest women need up to an hour's extra sleep a night compared to men, and not getting it may be one reason women are much more susceptible to depression than men.